


Two Hearts, Fourteen Days.

by FainTheSentientBeing



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Implied Tsubahono, Pirate/Mermaid AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-12-30 14:10:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12110421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FainTheSentientBeing/pseuds/FainTheSentientBeing
Summary: After a chance encounter, Captain Eli Ayase captures the Siren Nozomi Toujou. Planning to sell her off at the nearest trading town. The journey takes two weeks, and with each day of the journey, they draw closer and closer. But will they be close enough to stay together? Or will they be torn apart?(Based on @Aprikorca's AU. Check them out on twitter!)





	1. Chapter 1

A lone ship lazily rolled over the waves, leisurely making its journey across an endless expanse of cerulean. It was almost eerie, there wasn’t much life to anything, just the one, slowly moving ship and the lazy ocean. Not even the winds escaped the lifeless calm that seemed to envelop the ocean.

The unusual relaxation spread even to the people on the ship, who lazed about in various spots about the ship, basking in the sun like lizards on rocks. Only one of them seemed to be awake at all, she stood atop the crow's nest that was situated above the bright red sails of the boat, looking out across miles of absolute nothing. It was entirely futile, but she kept searching, determined to be thorough.

“Umi, what’re you doing up there?” Honoka called, confused as to why she was still working, despite the opportunity to relax. 

“I’m on lookout!” she replied, once again examining the landscape and finding absolutely nothing.

“But there’s nothing out there, nya…” Rin commented, fiddling with a knife, she twirled it in her fingers gracefully, the blade always narrowly missing her skin. It was like second nature to her, she didn’t even look at it.

“How do you know that? An enemy could be upon us at any moment.” she shot back, once again fruitlessly scanning around them.

“So what? If it’s some other pirates you’ll just take ‘em out with the cannon before they even get a chance to fire back. And if it’s the navy, I’ll just get Tsubasa to let us off the hook.” she responded cheerfully, perfectly confident and at ease.

“You can’t be that certain…” Umi grumbled. “Just because one admiral likes you, it doesn’t mean we’re completely safe.” 

“What? Umi, we’re basically unbeatable! Nothing can stop us!” she beamed, sitting up excitedly, her movement inspiring Rin to do the same.

“Yeah! When was the last time anyone gave us any trouble?” she cheered, Honoka’s enthusiasm spurring her own.

With a sigh, Umi gave up on them. At this point, they were lost causes, she understood their confidence, but their inability to consider any danger at all was merely foolish and irritating. As much as she respected Rin and Honoka, they certainly weren’t the most intelligent. She thanked god they had their captain, without her, they’d be utterly ruined. Somehow, she managed to control them, she didn’t really get how, but she somehow did it.

Yet more time passed with essentially nothing happening, Umi continually scanned the horizon, finding nothing, while the other two merely lay around. They didn’t speak too much either, mostly getting caught up in their own thoughts. “Hey, Umi. What’s the captain doing anyway?” Honoka questioned.

“Sleeping.” Umi replied, offhandedly.

Those were the only words spoken for a long while.

The next time a voice piped up, it was none of theirs. It came from afar, as beautiful and as delicate as a rose. It seemed to surround the ship, swirling around and enveloping them in a calming aura. Before they knew it, they had began steering their ship toward the sweet sound, growing closer and closer by the second.

The barren ocean they had once been travelling was suddenly gone, in its place a rocky mess that only got worse as it went on. Yet still, the boat went on, its red sail and cat-like insignia standing proud as it marched mindlessly toward the dangerous waters. 

The voice only grew louder as they approached, yet it wasn’t enough to satisfy them. They needed more, they needed to discover the source of the hypnotising force. The rocks grew ever closer, the waters grew rougher, the once smooth journey was gradually becoming treacherous. If they weren’t so consumingly compelled by the voice, they would’ve realised that the sweet allure of the song was a facade, like the nectar of a carnivorous plant, it lured them into a deadly maw that threatened to shut at any time.

With a crash, the door to the captain’s quarters burst open! The Captain emerged, examining the situation around her. She had heard stories of sirens and how they’d reduce even the greatest crew to a group of mindless zombies with just a song, but it was something else entirely to see it in action. 

She had to act quickly, their path was rapidly growing rougher and rockier. She rushed over to the wheel of the ship and examined her options. She couldn’t turn the ship around, the winds and waters were pushing them in too quickly. Her only option was a narrow path, rocks on either side. It was a big risk, if she went too fast into it, she could hit the rocks. She had to go perfectly down the centre of them. She was effectively walking on a knife’s edge. 

Stilling her breathing and held the wheel tight, her focus intense. She harshly pulled it to the right, sending the ship on its way toward her path. However, that was only the first part. She grabbed the wheel hard, stopping it dead. The boat straightened, jerking suddenly, the captain struggled to stand, barely keeping herself upright. Her hypnotised crewmates, however, fell, being knocked out of their dazes momentarily. “C-captain?” Umi questioned, confused as to how she managed to get from the crow’s nest to near the wheel. All she remembered was hearing a song, after that, it was all blank.

She didn’t respond at all, it seemed she hardly heard Umi. The ship sailed out of its rocky corridor, but the waters were still rough and unsafe, but it was manageable, hardly anything out of the ordinary for them. Effortlessly, she maneuvered the ship, sending it on a path back toward safety.  
The singing faded away, returning her crew to consciousness. They stumbled about, struggling to get their bearings. “Wh-what was that, nya?” Rin questioned, looking over the side of the ship, she swore they weren’t here before. After examining her surroundings, she turned to face the captain, quickly she seized up and stood to attention, the captain wasn’t one to shout, but Rin figured she had probably done something wrong.

The Captain didn’t respond, shifting her attention to the other two. Umi was stood to attention, but Honoka was still on the floor, clearly not noticing the captain. 

“Captain? Y-you saved us! But how? Surely the siren was getting to you too? Or could you resist it?” Umi questioned, amazement and admiration dripping from every word she spoke.

“Wow, that’s amazing, nya!” Rin added, beaming at her. Once again, the captain didn’t respond at all.

“Hm? What?” she asked, taking out a pair of earplugs, revealing that, no, she had not conquered the siren’s allure through any merit of her own, but through just a mere coincidence. It was simultaneously disappointing and hilarious at the same time. Honoka and Rin burst into laughter, Umi merely stared in disbelief.

Eli stretched, her joints clicking loudly. She yawned, lamenting her prematurely slaughtered nap. “Oh, you look confused. Let me explain.” she paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts and letting her mind settle after the sudden adrenaline. “You three got hypnotised by a siren that made you sail the ship into those rocky waters over there. So I had to get it out of there. Nothing too bad.” she explained, severely downplaying the severity of the incident. Her crew couldn’t tell if her confidence was feigned or if the life threatening situation really meant so little to her.

In reality Eli had been panicking the entire time. She had probably thought more swears in those few minutes than she had spoken in her entire life (Which was a lot, to say the least.) But she needed to keep up the image of a reliable captain, it meant a lot to her crewmates after all. “Now we’ve gotta figure out where we are.” she mumbled, looking around the ocean, aside from the rocky area they had come from, there was very little, none of it being recognisable.

“Ooor, we could find that siren and get them!” Honoka proposed, an eagre grin forming on her face. 

Everyone but Honoka turned to Umi, expecting her to dismiss her idea as foolish, as she always did, but instead she was silent, with a serious, contemplative look. “That might be a good idea actually…” she mused. “Sirens go for a lot, and we’ve been running low on finances lately.” she shot a sharp glance at Rin, who jumped back as if she had actually stabbed at her. She was referencing a recent event, where Rin had commissioned new sails and hats for everyone, depicting a skull and crossbones where the skull was that of a cat’s. Granted it was a far more unique image than their previous one, and the sails were actually quite good, her impulsive spending was something that Umi just couldn’t get over. “And since this one has crossed us, we might as well go for it.” she said, shrugging. “That is of course, if you want to, Captain.”

“Well, what do you three want?” she asked, looking over the three of them. Personally, she didn’t really care, but she wanted to consider all of her crew’s opinions.

They each nodded, Honoka and Rin responded with excited yeses, whereas Umi was the only one to actually elaborate on her opinion. “I think it’d be for the best, it makes these waters safer to travel and it gets us the money we need. There’s a lot of good to come from it.”

“I suppose it's settled then.” Eli concluded, walking over to the ship's wheel. “Let’s go find that siren. Umi, you get on the crow’s nest. Honoka, Rin, go get a net and get ready to capture it.” she ordered them around, all of a sudden transforming them to a competent crew. Eli looked over them as they worked, they were almost admirable. With a smirk, she turned the ship, heading off to where the siren was likely to be.

Nozomi lazed about on the rocks, now tired of singing. It was fun, but doing nothing but sit on some rocks and sing got boring fast. Examining the area around her, she concluded it was just as boring. There was no one around, all her friends were probably busy catching some fish or something. She wasn’t quite sure. It didn’t bother her anyway, she was accustomed to being alone. 

“Maybe I should just sleep.” she thought, taking another quick look over the area. As she expected, there was still nothing interesting. With a shrug, she lay back and closed her eyes. Letting herself drift off. 

“She’s just sleeping…” a voice said, pulling her from her slumber and back into the world of consciousness. “This’ll be easier than we thought!” it exclaimed. 

Before Nozomi could even open her eyes properly, a net was around her. She was rising up away from her rocky perch and toward a looming ship. It should’ve been terrifying, but Nozomi was too tired to feel anything more than curiousity and mild irritation. 

“Captain! We got her, nya!” Rin jumped up excitedly as she called Eli over. “Come see! Come see!”

Eli strode over, doing her best to play up her intimidating captain persona. She couldn’t risk coming across as weak to this siren. If she wasn’t careful it could take advantage of her weakness. There would be nothing to stop her from singing, crashing the ship, and killing all of them, if Eli didn’t intimidate her enough. She stood by the net, doing her best scowl and looking down at the net.

Nozomi sat up, hearing the footsteps grow closer and closer. She took a brief glance at the orange haired girls who had caught her. They were nothing special. 

Their eyes met almost simultaneously. Eli’s scowl immediately disappeared, becoming a look of shock and embarrassment. Her cheeks grew hot and pink. She had heard stories of sirens being beautiful, but Nozomi was so beyond her expectation, so beyond any woman she had seen before, that she couldn’t help but blush. Nozomi responded similarly, but with a lot more composure. Her eyes widened, so full of amazement that you could practically see stars glistening within them. 

Their moment was cut short by Eli suddenly realising her crew was staring at her. It wasn’t the time to be staring romantically at their cargo. “She’s just something we need to sell. Don’t forget that.” she told herself, turning away from the siren. “Alright. Take it away.” Eli said quickly, returning to the wheel of the ship. 

Nozomi snickered as she was taken away. Her day had just gotten a lot more fun.


	2. Chapter 2

Before Nozomi knew it, she had been dragged off to a bath underneath the deck and was unceremoniously dropped in it. There was very little water, but it was certainly enough for her to survive in. The two girls stared a bit, but just left wordlessly after a little while. She sighed, wiggling her tail out of boredom. The room was very plain too, with absolutely nothing to do or look at. There were chests, but each one was closed and locked, leaving her with no idea of their possible contents. 

She couldn’t even hum or sing to pass the time, either would likely get her shot. No matter how loudly she sang, they would be able to reach and kill her before the magic even got to them. So ultimately, it was a rather gloomy, hopeless situation. Being alone in a dark room with nothing to do. 

Nozomi didn’t care though.

To her, it was at least something. She had grown so accustomed to loneliness and boredom, so at least she was going through it on a cool pirate ship, instead of just her rock. And in addition, she had a chance to talk to a beautiful girl, so ultimately, it was a lot better. She just hoped that Eli would come down and talk with her soon. 

“Captain, are you sure this is safe? Shouldn’t we tie it down?” Umi questioned once Rin and Honoka returned from putting Nozomi into her new prison. 

“Aw, calm down Umi, she’s not gonna escape.” Rin said, sitting down and playing around with her knife in her usual manner. “And if she tries she can’t go far.” 

“Rin is right. Eli agreed. “There’s no water there, so the best it could do is crawl. And there’s no way it’s going to crawl out that room and unlock the door.” she nodded, confirming her plan. The siren had absolutely no hope of freedom. Without help at least.

“Seee, I told you not to worry.” Rin beamed, throwing the knife and catching between two fingers, the blade centimetres away from the skin between her fingers. 

Umi sighed. “Fine. But still, I think we should set up a routine of checking on it.” she huffed, glancing over to the door that lead below deck. “I’m busy in the crow's nest, so it should be one of you two.” she gestured to Rin and Honoka. 

“I’ll do it.” The captain declared, already making her way toward the door. “Honoka can do it tomorrow, Rin the day after, and then we repeat that order, got it?” 

“Aye aye, Captain!” Rin cheered, unintentionally saluting with her knife instead of her hand. 

“Yes. Captain.” Umi replied stoically, she wanted to object, that kind of work was beneath the captain, but she went along with it anyway. The final decision was always the captain’s. 

“Say, Umi. How long until we reach that trading town anyway? The one where we’ll sell her off?” Eli asked, turning away from the door and humming as she thought to herself. 

“Ah well…” Umi went off on a long and complex speech, explaining the route they were taking, the distance, the variables depending on the wind and the waters, etc. There was a clear reason why Umi was the navigator of the group. 

“W-what does that even mean?” Honoka mumbled.

“Beats me, nya.” Rin shrugged.

“Two weeks.” Eli announced. “We have two weeks until we reach there.” with those few words and a dramatic turn, she marched down the stairs to check on the siren. Unexpectedly, she was greeted as soon as her footsteps were heard.

“Oh hello there, captain.” Nozomi said, echoing slightly thanks to the enclosed space. “How’s it going?” the splashing of her tail in the shallow water could clearly be heard, it was obvious that she had swam to the edge in order to see Eli. 

“Hi.” Eli said sternly, not even looking at the siren. She recalled her reaction from their first meeting and didn’t want a repeat of it. 

“What’s up?” she asked casually. She showed absolutely no signs of intimidation, chatting to Eli as if she were just one of her friends and not her captor. 

“W-what’s up?” Eli asked, unnerved. She wasn’t expecting such a casual response, she began to worry that the siren had some trick up her sleeve, there was no way she should be that calm without a plan. “I could ask you the same question.”

“Why don’t you then?” Nozomi challenged, resting her head on her hands and smiling warmly at her. Eli took a step back, her friendliness was somehow intimidating, no one had ever reacted like this before, prisoners always begged for mercy or for freedom, they would spit at her and curse her name, they would never smile, especially not in such a nice way. 

“Well, what’s up?” Eli asked cautiously, a hand firmly placed on the pistol at her hip, if whatever she was planning came at her, she would be ready to shoot it down in an instant. 

“Hm, well I got kidnapped by some pirates, that was interesting. But luckily the captain is really hot, so it's not that bad.” she explained, a hint of mischief creeping into her casual tone.

Eli’s face set alight, burning with a blush that she refused to show. So she faced away from Nozomi, talking over her shoulder as she replied “Wh-what was that?”

“I said the captain was really hot.” she said matter of factly, tilting her head in an attempt to see Eli’s flustered face more. 

“Do you even know who the captain is?” Eli grumbled, simultaneously hoping that she was and wasn’t talking to her. If she was, it meant an attractive girl thought she was hot, which was good, but it also meant that her cargo was interested in her, which would be odd to say the least. And if she wasn’t talking about her, then she’d be jealous that her cargo was interested in someone else, but then she wouldn’t have to worry about it having feelings for her. It was an odd situation. 

“Hmm, not really. But I’d like to get to know her.” Nozomi teased, even punctuating her sentence with a wink that Eli was unable to see. “If she’s okay with that.” Nozomi added with a giggle.

Eli turned around, managing to get her blush under control. “What do you want to know?” by now she had completely forgotten her true intention for going in, her grip on the gun loosened and she was being lured into a conversation, much like their ship was lured into the rocks the day before. 

“Well, what’s your name?” she asked, looking at her with genuine curiousity.

“Eli Ayase.” she replied bluntly.

“Hm, I see. Do you like women, Eli?” she sniggered, she already knew the answer, she just wanted to hear it from the woman herself. 

“Um, yes.” she mumbled. “Why?” 

“Good.” Nozomi grinned. “I do too. What do you like in a woman?” 

Eli gave it some thought, she could’ve sworn she had a taste in women, but whenever she attempted to think about it, all that she could think of was Nozomi. “Uh, I don’t know.” she muttered.  
“Well I like blonde hair, blue eyes. It’s nice when they’re tall and strong too...” she smiled at her teasingly, it was insanely clear that Nozomi was just listing off traits of her as she checked her out. “And although it’s kind of weird, it’s quite cool when girls are intimidating too.” she looked over Eli again. “You aren’t intimidating though, actually you’re pretty cute.” she teased, Eli was completely lost on how to feel, on the one hand she had just been insulted, since Nozomi claimed she wasn’t intimidating, but on the other, she had just been called cute. After no deliberation at all, she settled on just being flustered. 

“C-cute, I thought you said I was hot?” she grumbled.

“Hmm, you’re both! Pretty too.” Nozomi replied, smiling wide at her. “Also, I only said that the captain was hot. So I’m guessing I was right about that being you.” 

Eli pulled her hat down aggressively, covering her face and looking at the floor, she was being so utterly defeated by the siren, it was unfair. Despite how hard she tried, she was unable to devise a counterattack ,her brain scrambled by all the flirting directed toward her.

“A-anything else?” Eli asked having lost to Nozomi completely.

“How’re you doing? Your crew seems like a lot of trouble, are they giving you any stress?” Nozomi asked, completely genuinely, with undeniably legitimate concern. 

“Oh, no, they’re fine, thank you. I’m used to them by now.” she replied, thanking god that it was shifting to a more regular conversation and not just a flurry of flirtatious comments from Nozomi.

“I see, what are their names? Who are they?” Nozomi inquired, still genuinely interested. 

“Oh well, the taller orange haired one is Honoka. She likes bread and is sort of our diplomat. She’s really good at getting people off our tail. The shorter one is Rin, she’s incredible with a knife, she’s probably our best fighter. Then the grumpy blue one is Umi, our navigator and our main cannon operator.” 

Nozomi smiled softly “They sound like fun.” she almost envied Eli, she had a group of people to be around constantly. Friends that were always at her side. Nozomi lacked that. While she had some friends, they were always busy with their own lives, she didn’t feel particularly close to them. 

“Is it ever dangerous?” was Nozomi’s next question. Eli didn’t need to think nearly as much as with the other ones.

“Surprisingly, not really.” she said. “We’re all very capable, and Honoka’s dating an admiral, so we slip under the law’s radar a lot.” she mused. “I don’t mind it though, it’s nice to live comfortably, even if we miss out on a little bit of excitement. 

“Aw, was capturing me not exciting?” Nozomi joked.  
“It was terrifying, that rock formation was almost impossible to get out of!” Eli complained. “We all could’ve died!” 

“I’m sorry, I was only singing…” Nozomi frowned. 

Remembering the intense ship maneuvering she had to do jogged Eli’s memory, pulling her out of the hypnotising conversation she was having with Eli and reminding her of her original purpose. Telling Nozomi what was going to happen to her. Even before she got to know her, she thought she deserved to know. “Anyway, uh. I came down here to tell you that you’ve got two weeks, fourteen days here. Then we’re going to sell you off.” she explained. 

“Sell me off? What?” Nozomi’s eyes widened, their teal tinted green no longer glistening with enjoyment, but growing dim with fear. 

“Yes. A lot of people like getting sirens for their fishtanks, they’re the prize of any collection.” Eli explained, she took no joy in telling her, but their plan was already decided and they were sticking with it. 

“Right…” Nozomi mumbled, still trying to process everything. Just as the hope of companionship arrived, a countdown to when she would lose even the chance of it forever began. 

Eli solemnly turned away, beginning to take her leave. She deeply regretted talking to her, but she regretted telling her that even more. Guilt surged through her, painful and unyielding. 

“Nozomi Tojo.” the siren called from behind her. Eli spun on her heels to look. “My name is Nozomi Tojo. I just realised you told me your name but I didn’t tell you mine, so I just told you.” she explained, leaning back in her shallow bath and looking away at the nothingness she shared the room with.

“Well uh, it was nice to meet you, Nozomi. I’ll see you in two days.” Eli told her, praying that her words would somehow help even a little bit, despite the unlikelihood of it. 

Fourteen days remain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finallly, the second chapter of this is released! Sorry it was a bit late, I planned for it to be bi-monthly, but I ended up being 11 days late. But I suppose that's not too bad. Point is, it's here and I'm glad it is! I wrote it mostly in one day, which I'm pretty proud of! I worked really hard to get it done and released, I hope that work is evident and made a really good chapter! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I'd really appreciate any comments telling me what you think and how I've done with this chapter. Have a good day!


	3. Chapter 3

From her perch, Umi inspected the ship. Everything seemed to be in perfectly normal order, Rin was sweeping the floors, Eli was in her quarters, reviewing the route she had planned for her, and Honoka was steering the ship. As for the ocean, it was perfectly at peace. Not a threat or difficulty in sight. For the first time in a long while, she could actually relax. After a little deliberation with herself, she decided to come down from the crow’s nest. At least briefly, everything was under control, so she thought she should take the opportunity to rest while it was there.

She went below deck to her quarters and collapsed onto the bed, allocating herself an hour of lazing about before going to check on her crewmates.   
Unfortunately, like all time Umi intended to spend lazing, it was cut short. An incessant creaking seeping through the ship and into her room. She recognised it quickly, it was the stairs down to the cargo room. A sound that shouldn't exist. The cargo room was to be checked at certain intervals by whoever was in charge of it that day. And for that day, it had already been checked. Honoka had been down there and stated that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Umi ran through a few possibilities of what it could be. Just the movement of the ship causing it to creak, a stray bird having landed and deciding to explore the ship, or possibly even a rat. She prided herself on having a clean ship, but she couldn’t deny it was possible for one to be there.

But those were all pleasant possibilities, and the mind didn’t deal in those, preferring to focus on the more worrying potential outcomes. Umi was no exception, and worry set comfortably in. The possibilities changed from birds and rats to attackers or escapees. Or perhaps just one of the other two away from their post. Whatever it was, Umi couldn’t leave it uninvestigated, so she rose from the comfort of her bed to track down the source of the creaking.

Once she got the top of the stairs, the answer was clear. Rin. Very, very, very slowly. Sneaking her way down the stairs, completely oblivious to the creaking that gave her away. “Rin, what are you doing?” Umi snapped coldly.

“N-nothing, nya!” Rin squeaked, standing to attention, her arm nearly re-positioning itself into a salute. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be cleaning?” Umi glared.

“I-I finished!” she replied in a high-pitched panic.

“Well what about going and checking the cannons?” Umi pressured.

“Uh…”

“And counting our food supply?”

“Uhhh….”

Umi sighed. “You have work, go do it.” she said curtly, preparing to turn and leave.

“But Umi! I want to see the mermaid.” she complained. “The Captain and Honoka got to already.” 

“And you’ll get your turn to check on her tomorrow.” Umi responded tiredly.

“Yes but, don’t you wanna know what she’s like?”   
“It’s just another thing to sell” Umi insisted.

“Aw c’mon, don’t you wanna at least find out if they’re friendly or not?” Rin pleaded. 

“Not really, no.” she gave a dry reply. “Besides, she nearly killed us. Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?”

“Uhhh.” Rin struggled to think of an argument, looking down at her feet and thinking. “Hey! What’s that!” she exclaimed, pointing behind Umi and running down the stairs.

Umi didn’t react to Rin’s attempted ruse at all, simply running after her once she started down the stairs. “Rin! Stop!” Umi growled, reaching out to grab her, only for Rin to duck under and dart away.

In no time at all they were at the door at the bottom of the stairs, Umi still swiping at Rin to try and stop her. She restrained Rin’s arm, but the other managed to snake to the doorknob and push it open, causing the two of them to embarrassingly tumble out into the mermaid’s room.

Nozomi peered out of the bath, smirking at them, it seemed as if she had been waiting for them, her smug look prepared in advance. Umi shot a glare at her, standing up and dusting herself off. Nozomi remained unphased, despite the daggers Umi had given her, the same pair that left most enemy pirates quivering before she had even drawn her sword.

“So, what’re you two doing here?” Nozomi asked nonchalantly, treating her captors as she would anyone else.

“Nothing.” Umi snarled, grabbing Rin by the arm and starting to drag her away.

“Visiting you!” Rin chirped, slipping out of Umi’s arms and rushing over to her. Umi started over to grab Rin again, but the shimmer of her knife kept her back. Umi sighed, she knew that Rin was good with a knife, there was no point risking an unnecessary injury on stopping her. 

She was curious about the creature anyway, maybe it was a good idea for the two of them to talk with it. 

“Huh?” Nozomi said, tilting her head, completely mystified by the two of them. 

All of a sudden, Rin’s knife was pointed toward Nozomi. “So, do you eat people?” she asked, unusually chipper. 

“Nah.” she shrugged. “They taste bad, and there’s plenty of fish out there for us to eat instead.” 

“I see…” Rin nodded. “Can you do magic?” 

“Nope. But I can read your fortune if you get me some cards.” Nozomi gave what could be described as a shark-like grin, although it’d be more apt to say that sharks wore a siren-like grin. “ 

Rin looked over to Umi quick with excitement, however Umi responded with a solemn shake of her head. “Sorry, we don’t have any, nya.” Rin said, frowning with her head hung.

“Ah, no worries.” Nozomi responded, dismissing the issue with a handwave. “Maybe some other time.”

Umi shot them both a cold glance, chills ran down their spines. They were being too friendly. Rin let Umi’s coldness flow through her, attempting to use it for herself. “What do you lure ships in for anyway?” she said, slightly more aggressive than her previous questions. She looked back at Umi who gave an approving nod, Rin swelled with pride.

“We don’t. We just sing.” Nozomi said plainly. “You humans are the ones who drive your ships toward us.” 

Umi grumbled something under her breath and stepped forward. She didn’t intend to speak directly to the siren yet, just hear what she was saying. And frankly she didn’t like what she was hearing, the siren acting so innocent bothered her. She refused to vocalise it though, merely glaring at it as Rin continued her conversation.

“Ummm…” she struggled, attempting to come up with another question. “What are catfish like?” she exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at her with anticipation. She had been wondering this for a long while now, and she was hyped up for the answer.

Nozomi snickered, not wanting to ruin her dreams, she simply answered. “Different than you’d expect.” 

“What about tiger sharks?”she asked next, her excitement not fading.

“They’re pretty nice.” Nozomi said, she recalled them being rather relaxed and docile around sirens, despite them being the apex predators.

Rin grinned. “I’ve always wanted to catch one!” she confessed. Umi could be heard sighing in the background. “Are they hard to catch?”

“For a human, probably.” Nozomi said plainly. “But not impossible.” she smiled, Rin’s eyes lit up. “So, you like cats then?”

Rin nodded so enthusiastically her head seemed it would fly off. “But we can’t get a ship cat because I’m allergic.” she grumbled, side-eyeing Umi.

“It’s a health hazard.” she replied. “I can’t jeopardize your health just for some cat.”

“It’s not even that bad though!” Rin whined. Umi gave her a cold stare, Rin knew she was keeping her safe, but in all honesty she valued cats over her own safety by far.

“Who are you two anyway? A double act?” Nozomi questioned, flipping over in the bathtub and looking at them upside down.

“I’m Rin! I’m good at knives! This is Umi, she’s like the boss but not.” Rin explained simply.

“What Rin meant to say is, she’s our combat specialist and I’m the first mate. But I also perform a lot of our management tasks, navigation, observatio-”

Nozomi snickered, she already knew who they were, but it was interesting hearing them describe themselves, it gave her a real idea of their personalities. She figured she could get along with them, if their circumstances were different at least.

“Basically Umi does everything! But she’s bad with people so she’s not the captain.” Rin explained. 

Umi shot her a dark look. “I don’t do everything, and you’re not giving the captain enough credit.” 

Nozomi slowly nodded in acknowledgement. “Yeah, I can already tell that the captain is better than you at a lot of stuff.” she teased, half expecting Umi to draw a sword on her. However she hardly moved, her eyes widened and she looked away, and that was all. 

Rin looked at Nozomi with awe, she’d never seen someone shut Umi down so effectively. It was an absolutely incredible achievement in her eyes. 

“Wh-what do you know about the captain anyway?” Umi retorted. 

“Hmm. That she’s hot.” Nozomi’s sharp teeth displayed themselves in a large smile. 

An incoherent mess of Ws and vowels emerged from Umi’s mouth. “Y-y-y-you can’t say that!” she shouted. Meanwhile, Rin was collapsing with laughter.

“Why not?” Nozomi asked innocently.

“Because!” she growled, struggling to think of a coherent answer. With every second she was losing more and more dignity. “I-I’m telling the captain about this!” she grumbled, storming off up the stairs.

“She already knows!” Nozomi called after her, noting the red blush that was consuming her face. 

Rin hadn’t left yet. She sat across from the siren and beamed at her. “That was amazing, nya.” she praised.  
“Aw, nah. It’s quite a simple thing. It works for all girls like her and the captain.” Nozomi explained, leaning back and relaxing in her bathtub. It was getting surprisingly homely.

“Do… You know a lot about girls?” Rin asked softly, looking at Nozomi with wide-eyed curiousity. Nozomi nodded confidently. “If you don’t mind, could you teach me?” she asked, her eyes nervously glued to the floor, her hands fidgeting in her lap.

“Of course.” Nozomi smiled, patting her on the head with a wet, clawed hand. “What do you wanna know?”

“Well-” Rin began.

“Rin! Get up here!” Eli called, Umi clearly wasn’t bluffing when she said she would tell the captain. 

“Aw…” Rin whimpered, rising to her feet and looking anxiously at the staircase. 

“Hey, it’s alright.” Nozomi smiled. “Just come by another day? Then we’ll talk about girl stuff all you want, okay?” 

Rin’s yellow eyes sparkled like the sunset reflected on the ocean, she nodded excitedly and rushed off upstairs, waving wildly as she did.

The siren’s room was then locked, sealing her in a lonely darkness for another day. Despite the conditions, she felt a little giddy to help Rin.

Thirteen days remain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry for not posting for ages! I was really struggling with writing for a long while, but I've been getting back into writing now. I'm sorry about that. I'll do my best to keep up writing consistently again. It took me a bit of time to get this chapter down, a lot of it was hard. But toward the end I felt me really getting into a good groove with it. Though, this may just be me being negative. I don't know. Regardless, I just hope everyone enjoys this chapter and has a good day!

**Author's Note:**

> I really liked this, personally! I absolutely adore the AU and the combination of characters in the crew is a lot of fun to write! They've got a really cool dynamic and chemistry. I really love Eli being the responsible captain and leading her not so competent crew. Its really fun. I hope everyone finds it equally fun to read! But yeah, there wasn't a ton of plot to this chapter, really just a lot of setup and establishing, but of course, that's not a bad thing. Before reading this, I'd recommend taking a look at the pirate and mermaid sets, as they give you a good idea on how the characters look. (Although I'll likely describe it more in later chapters). Anyhow, I don't think I have much more to say. So I hope everyone enjoys this fic and has a great day!
> 
> Tumblr: https://fainthesentientbeing.tumblr.com/
> 
> Headcanon blog: https://gayidolheadcanons.tumblr.com/


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